Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-10-28

contamination Indeed /, death swal-
lowed up i'll victory. If in uul pride OF
conquest; If in these organizations and
festivals our purpose were simply TO
count our excess of victories, to glory in
our superiority of nun Oers, financial en-.
duranCe and material strength, to echo
the gladiatOrs' roar OF triumph to rake
from the dying embers flashes of the
singing fires OF hate, it were worse than
time wasted. 1t was no fight of mon with
men that il but brutality 1t wa~ the
eternal war OF right with wrong, which is
divine, and wreathes an eternal crown OF
glory around the broWs Of the couquerOr.
Our foes were not worth beating If the
purpose were simply to beat them. But
it was the chastisement of love that over.
threw, not them, but the false gods they
worshipped, the false principles they
obeyed, and that restored to them and Sc
cured to us a Union founded for the first
time on universal freedom and equality.
And so it is that, as sometimes n brave
man peris and loses his life that he may
save that of little child, or even of 4 foe,
so you, our heroes, fought, and your com
rades died that all your countrymen,
North and South, might live the only life
| worth liVing-the life of freemen. The
| result is Il united couutry-the South,
such as it is fast becoming, solid only be
cause at last and forever solidly identified
with the education, the business growth,
the glowing enterprise of the North-ts
| common people taught at last in the com
mon schools-its vast fields opened to the
stimulating immigration of the globe, its
great rivers turning the wheels of pros
porous and peaceful industries-a united
country that counts rs nothing its ability
to fight the world, but as everything It's
| ability TO lead the world in the arts of
peace, secure in the consciousness rather
than in the exhibition of power and ce
l mented, not by blood, bat by the interests
OF common progress
This. then. is trilmnl-DOt that
overthrow brave though provincial and
misguided foe, stunted by the ban barism
of slavery, but that we have in fact and
forever established the principle that all
men are born free and equal; have destroy
ed the doctrine of caste; have proved the
stability and permanence of II government
OF the people have consolidated our hete
rOgeneous population and made them all
of one birth and kin We have confirmed
the policy of honesty in financial admin
tstration, of keeping good the nations
promise of giving its people an honest
dollar. We have struck the shackles from
the feet of the slave, and still more from
the soul of the master. We have let loose
! the energies, the mighty energies, of a
Tree people, which are turning this vast
domain into bouudless hive of industry
and prosperity, girting it with bands OF
iron rails, pouring its agricultural wealth
} in golden showers eXcelling in its manu-
1 features all other lands. and disemboWel-
IlllS us llliuOo VI SOl'l anu EIlNGI, anu
homelier hut still more precious ores.
) Best OF all, we have emancipated the
prodigal States themselves from the swine
! herds thraldom and put rings on their
hands and shoes on their feet, allowing
them to iusl ly share, but never more to
5 domineer. Applause
) AS | look upon our veterans faces, on
which time is writing in palmer lines its
autograph, | know that their ranks are
! thinning, but that they all still live in the
works that do follow them-live in the
history of patriotic people pictured in
pages more graphic than those of Plutarch
; or Macaulay, and in the songs of poets
who shall sing nobler than Virgil's man,
and an epic mightier than the Illiad.
They live in these monuments of stone
and bronze which we erect not more to
their memory than to the education of
! coming generations. In their massive
4 handwriting the century is recording for
Y centuries hence its story of heroism so
f plain, so legible, that though new Babel
5 should arise and the English tongue he
( lost, the human heart and eve wouId still
I read 1t at glance Scarce a town is there
< in which these monuments and statues do
2 not rise summer and winter, in snow and
= sun, day and night, to tell how universal
= was the response of the loyal North to the
= call of the patriots duty.
/, TINS very day, in the fairest park in
, Philadelphia is occurring the dedication
5 of an equestrian statue of Mai Gen. Geo.
: Gordon Meade hat most loyal and faith
tul knight, who swept forever back the
e farthest tide of rebellion at Gettysburg,
E aud thenceforward at the side of Grant,
1 always modest, wise and uutiring, pressed
4 home the Union column, till it stamped
= out the heart of armed treason at Apo
p mattox. Gettysburg | cannot speak Of
t Ii here ana not recall also that modest
r. soldier of Vermont whom you hold IN such
IN ar ha mi ipll mt
p. OF the great battle saw and was equal 10
e the opportunity of browning it with vic
e tory hy the brilliant flank movement on
a pickett's line which was one OF the very
' meteor-tlashes iof the war. Him in recent
+ years ilschargng the humber duties of
his service in the national capitol, shat
: tered in health, broken with wounds, his
! right arm severed, his frame wasted, his
: face pallid, but his eye still kindlng, /
! saw almost daily, yet never saw without a
4 pathetic thrill of tenderness and admira-
D tion-your own brave, brilliant brother in
: aEns, The splendid brigadier OF that splen
Y dm Vermont brigade, George Jerrison
;! Stannard. Applause
i Within the year, too, another hero,
whom no volunteer of the war should or
i Will forget at any reunion of his comrades
5 a brave and loyal soul without fear and
1 without reproach, the soldiers idol and
4 friend, the founder of Memorial day, has
t gone to his grave. Here Gov. Long gave Il
7 graphic sketch and paid a glowing tri
! butte TO Gen. John A. Logan.
/ Still with us, Sherman and Sheridan
. over the river Grant, Thomas, Hancock,
e Logan, and so many, many illustrious
e names of captains and privates-all there
e and now of one equal rank, Gods grand
+ army and loyal legion God he praised
e for the work they did Prominent among
$ the results of their and your service stand
+ forth these four-a very crown of glorious
. stars.
S LIST. The fruiton Of emancipation in a
j whole race of millions of fellow creatures
t lifted from slavery TO freedom, from op-
y preston to citizenship, from llliteracy to
education, from restitution TO possession,
/ from the brute to the mana source of
a strength and pride to the government
= that entranchised them.
d ID. An enlarged spirit of humanity,
e towering into inestimab'e agencies of
(, charity, enfranchising the red man as
= well as the black, sweeteniug religious
/ faith with larger liberation, weaving